Page 37 of Inescapable Ties
“Anything wrong, boss?” Rocco asked.
“Tch. Just keeping my eye on someone.”
The way he said it wasn’t in the same tone as when we were talking about tailing or kidnapping someone. I wondered who this mystery person was.
“Anyway,” Ettore said. “About the shooting at the gala. As it turns out, Emilio just caught up in the middle of someone else’s shit.”
“The fuck?” Vincenzo said.
‘The fuck’ was right. Luciana had almost died because I took her to the wrong place. If I ever got the chance, I decided I’d kill whoever orchestrated this myself.
“From what we’ve gathered so far, the primary goal was political. We’re not sure who did it yet, but because it doesn’t affect us directly, I’m not too worried about it.”
“Who did they hire? The Bratva?” I asked.
“Too soon to say,” Ettore responded.
A heavy silence settled over the room, broken only by the distant whir of machinery. We liked to hide in plain sight, and this warehouse was one of many legitimate companies. The district contained many construction companies, so there were always loud noises going on. We chose this location intentionally - if there was a scream in a non soundproofed room, no one could hear it.
“So, what are we doing?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Ettore said. “It doesn’t involve us. It’s unfortunate that you were caught up in it, but we suffered no losses and have more pressing matters.”
The destroyed warehouse had been the most pressing matter at hand, demanding our attention. Leads had been scarce, and it felt like we weren’t making any progress.
But that twenty million dollar warehouse meant nothing compared to Luciana’s life.
“That’s bullshit,” I said.
“It’s final,” he responded. “Look, it sucks that you and your wife got caught up in that shit, ok? But you survived, which can’t be said for a lot of mafiosos and their families that were there.”
Ettore paused, cracking his knuckles before continuing. “And you can bet when the affected families find out who did it, they’ll torch the goddamn earth in response. Anything we would do would be nothing compared to families who have lost loved ones.”
This wasn’t the first time Ettore had prioritized business over personal sentiment, but something about this dismissal stung more than the previous ones. My fingers twitched, eager to draw a blade or a gun, to fight for Luciana’s near escape from death. But Ettore was right, as much as I hated to admit it.
“God damn it,” I muttered.
“So, let’s get back to our first priority. I found a lead…”
Chapter nineteen
Luciana
“WhenIaskedtohang out, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Martina said.
When she had called, I already had plans to shoot more footage for an upcoming YouTube video. So I asked her if she wanted to come along.
“You said you would come,” I responded.
“I didn’t know it would be so…creepy.”
We were venturing into the depths of an abandoned apartment building outside the city. Alessio, Martina’s security detail, walked in front of us, and Short Dino covered the rear.
The once-grand structure was now a shadow of its former self, with broken windows and peeling paint on every surface. We cautiously stepped over piles of debris and avoided rusty nails jutting out from the floorboards as we made our way deeper into the eerie space. I would periodically stop and try to get footage from every angle.
“Ooh, ooh, put me in it!” Martina said, jumping in front of the video camera.
I frowned. “You know I don’t put people in my videos.”
